Caught up in election fever earlier, I’ve now belatedly read your editorial (April 30) on Extinction Rebellion’s action in York: “Smugness won’t win any support”.

Sorry to be late responding to that editorial. And sorry for what I read in it.

It began admirably, persuasively endorsing the urgent message Extinction Rebellion (XR) is trying to get across. But then – Oh dear, they’re doing it all wrong! “Too often their behaviour...has come across as arrogant, inconsiderate and smug”.

With my family I visited the XR Marble Arch camp in London at Easter. We met no one who was any of these things – just ordinary people, extraordinary only in their devotion to their cause (and yours), and the risks they’re ready to take for it.

For decades, while our planet overheated, they’ve warned us nicely – and been ignored. Now, in desperation, they’ve given up being nice – and get slagged off!

Wonderful Greta Thunberg told the Davos conference that our house is on fire…

“Dad, Dad, wake up, someone’s banging on the door, they say our house is on fire!” “Go back to sleep, children!” “But Dad, are they right?” “Yes, they’re absolutely right, but you mustn’t listen to them, they’re nasty people, arrogant and smug!”

“But Dad..."

John Heawood,

Eastward Avenue, York